>>99633520The problem is that altchans got what other social network exoduses have lacked: Mass movement.
People moved en masse from Friendster to MySpace, and later from MySpace to Facebook.
People moved en masse from AIM to MSN, to Skype, and then to Discord.
That's why those platforms, and others in similar situations, were able to survive despite being new. They had something that their predecessors lacked, and they had enough people who wanted that Something to make them all want to come over.
Compare this to, say, any Tumblr clone that sprung up in the time when that site was in a flux after the Yahoo buyout. They had everything Tumblr had, and maybe one or two other subtle improvements, but the ultimate selling factor was "We're like Tumblr, but not Tumblr." A fraction of Tumblr's userbase would go over, and an even smaller fraction would stay week after week. Eventually, the site becomes a ghost town, perhaps useful for a case-by-case basis but otherwise far from the achieving the purported dreams of its creators.
On another note, Bluesky seems to be caught in the limbo between a successful exodus and a failed migration. Yes, there is an audience that uses the site on a regular basis, but it's hardly enough to place it as a true competitor to Twitter. It certainly has the chance to be seen as an equal member of the marketplace, but that likely won't be for years from now.
Anyways, my main point is that thanks to the 4chan hackening, the altchans got a boost thanks to the void in the imageboard market. As you can see, it's worked out pretty well for the most part, at least where /vt/ is concerned
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